Quote:
Originally Posted by fredhjr
I am interested in the touch on the back of R making the ball recoverable by either team. Would it be?? Or not?
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The ball may be recovered without penalty by either team, the only question being which team is awarded possession on the ball's becoming dead. By 2-44, "touching" the ball includes cases of being touched by it.
The only exception on the provision regarding possession applicable to touching of a scrimmage kick by a player of R on R's side of the expanded neutral zone would be in case an opponent caused the touching. So after the ball touches the R player in his back, players of either team may recover & retain possession for their team (1st down), but if a player of K recovers it, the ball is dead.
I can think of one other exception, though it seems unlikely: If that player of R with his back to the ball was hit by the kick because it was low, that touching can be ignored. How often would it come up that a player of the receiving team would have his back to the kick, and be hit by a low, possibly bounding ball that never got far off the ground, without a player of K's having blocked him into its path (which would already cause the touching to be ignored)?